The change we deserve

When you follow local murder and criminal cases, as I have for several years now, you find stories that linger in your mind long after the initial shock of reading the facts has subsided. You also find yourself periodically wondering about the story’s outcome. One quick Google search later and I’m usually deeply disappointed and angry to discover that there is still no ending because our legal system continued to drag things out for much longer than any human being should have to bear.

Last week, a banner was hung opposite parliament by the mother of a woman who was killed 10 years ago. It turns out that not only has this case not been resolved but a trial date for the alleged killer hasn’t even been set yet. Eleanor Walker was killed on July 2, 2016. Her body was discovered in a Qormi warehouse. Her alleged murderer turned himself in after a two-day manhunt and was charged with her murder. He is out on bail. I read and read these sentences over and over again and try to make sense out of them, and every time I fail.

I think of this poor woman begging for justice for her daughter and for closure after 10 long years. I think of Eleanor’s own daughter, who was nine at the time of her mother’s murder, and who has had to go through the thorny path of becoming an adult without her.

I think of Chantelle Chetcuti’s sister asking for justice for her sister and asking for a “justice system that protects families instead of traumatising them further”.

I think of Lassana Cisse’s family in the Ivory Coast waiting for answers while his alleged murderers continue to roam free.

Our lives should matter- Anna Marie Galea

And, then, I remember that it took 18 years for Sion Grech’s case to be heard, and not only has no one been put away for her murder but both her parents died since, having not seen justice being done.

The list goes on and on and on, and I honestly can’t believe how more people aren’t equal parts worried and enraged that there seems to be so little in place to deter people from committing heinous crimes. In what world does it make sense to grant alleged murderers bail for years upon years?

There is simply no excuse for any of this. There is no justification good enough for the endless psychological hardship victims’ loved ones keep being put through. It should not take decades for a trial date to be set. Justice delayed is justice denied and the longer things are prolonged, the greater the probability that miscarriages can, and will, take place. We have already heard of evidence disappearing from our law courts over shorter periods, let alone over years and years. And don’t even get me started on witness memory either.

I will say this till I’m blue in the face: Walker deserves better, Chetcuti deserves better; indeed, we all deserve better than this.

Our lives should matter and the only way the state can reflect that is by giving us reasonable trial waiting times that don’t continue to pour salt over an already gaping wound.

What is it going to take to bring about the change we deserve?